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Emerald
Ship The Emerald is a brigantine bark, in that the mainsail is a fore-and-aft sail called the spanker rather than square rigged. She's a bit too long for a proper brigantine, but with her sail rig she has to be named as one. Besides, Jacky though brigantine is ever so much more elegant than mere brig. A brigantine is a Thoroughbred, a brig is a nag. She's one hundred and ten feet long, thirty feet in the beam, displaces two hundred and fifty tons, has a crew of thirty-nine, counting Jacky. The Emerald was sound as a drum, with new copper on her bottom. The Emerald originally carried four twelve-pounder guns, two on either side. She had a stern gun, since a ship that small would be more used to running than chasing. Jacky and Liam saw that she needed two more guns on each side, those being eighteen-pound cannons, and a Long Tom up forward. They also bought new cutlasses, muskets, wads, ball, and grappling hooks. And, since the Emerald is too small to have a brig, some sets of leg irons. The gun crews took white paint to name their cannons—mostly in Gaelic, but I was told by Liam what they meant: Thundercrack, Widowmaker, Firespitter, Old Murder, and such. It was good to build team spirit. The massive timbers that support the thinner planks of the hull, marveling at the craftsmanship that went into building her—the carefully shaped pegs and wedges that are pounded into her and hold her together—how like a delicate eggshell she is, yet she is able to keep out the raging sea and keep us safe inside her. On the lowest deck the tiller ropes slide back and forth as the wheel is turned by the helmsman—sometimes just a little bit, sometimes a lot. The ropes, which are attached to a drum at the base of the wheel, come down through the floorboards of the decks, go through pulleys, and attach to the rudder, and so the ship is steered. If anything happens to any of this rig in a fight or a storm, then the ship has to be steered from down there, and it is not an easy thing. Prizes *Topaz: A small brig. It carried clarets, burgundies, Bordeaux, and perfume. *Santo Domingo: It was newly back from the Orient and was filled with spices, rare silver treasures, and fine silk. *Sully: A Schooner. It was full of champagne. Enough for a hundred English New Years, or ten Irish ones. They also found a leather bag full of rubies, diamonds, and a big emerald. They belonged to Marquis de Mont Blanc, who was using it to flee France, to Britain, and later New Orleans. He was returned the jewels, having taken some for safe passage across the channel. *A two-masted schooner. Crew *Jacky Faber: Owner *Liam Delaney: Captain *John Reilly: First Mate, an old man-of-war's man. He also controls the Number Two Gun Port Side *John Higgins: Chief Steward *Sullivan: His crew runs the crew of the bow chaser. *Mahoney: He controls Number Eight Gun Port Side. *Padraic Delaney: Liam's son *Arthur McBride *Ian McConnaughey: Left to join Mairead in London. *Duggan *Hogan *O'Hara *Doyle *Farrell *Sean *O'Brian *Dennis Muldoon *Ryan *Kinsella *Brian *Kelly *Parnell *Sully *Denny *Sheehan: A big man, and one of the older hands in the Port Watch Section. *Lynch Shares The ship's company knew when they signed on that the shares of the money would be divided thusly: *50 shares for Jacky and the Emerald, she has to pay for all the food, the powder and shot, all the other supplies, and the refitting and repair. And, it's her ship. *10 shares for Liam Delaney, Master and Commander. *5 shares for John Reilly, First Mate. *1 share each for 35 men. *200 pounds for John Higgins, out of Jacky's shares, added on to his originally 1 share, for being apart of the crew. History L'Emeraude was a French merchant ship. It was decided that Liam would be Master and Jacky would be Owner. He would have all the authority of a Captain, his word being law in matters of discipline, operation, and safety of the ship, while Jacky would direct where the ship went and what it did. The spring and summer of 1805, they roamed, raided, plundered, sang, and danced; and roamed and raided some more. Teye began in their old hunting grounds and bagged themselves a few fat prizes, but the French soon grew weary and they headed south to bother the Spaniards again. When that grew tame, the cre became bolder as they pushed on into the Mediterranean, and lurked around the Spanish ports and nailed ships coming out of their harbors and they sold them in Algiers, where no questions were ever asked. They pushed up to the east coast of France, to Nice and Marseilles, and made many a captain sorry he had ever set sail and crossed their wake. They rocked and rolled across the waves, they chased ships and they caught them, and other ships chased the crew, but they never caught the fast and nimble Emerald. They went to Italy, Malta, and Corsica. They changed their flag at the masthead from the British Union Jack, to the American Stars and Stripes, even to the Jolly Roger. They plundered the north coast of Africa and when things got too hot for them, they crossed the big pond and went to the Caribbean and came back with more Spanish gold. They drank and danced and caroused in ports from Kingston to Saint Vincent, from Palma to Naples, from Rome to Palermo, from Gibraltar to Cork.